Danny Phantom's Fiery Christmas
by Tempest86
Summary: Sequel to "Chicken Soup for Ember's Soul." Yes, you heard me. A sequel. I know it's not Christmas anymore, but I wanted this to get out there. Enjoy!


In response to several people asking to continue or make a sequel to "Chicken Soup for Ember's Soul," here is a story set six years later from that story (seeing how I wrote that story just a little over SIX years ago anyway). Honestly, I did not expect people to still be reading that story. One reason being that Danny Phantom was canceled long ago and the other reason being that I put the story up six years ago and marked it as "Complete." Anyways, this is my try at a sequel.

Yes, I know it's not Christmas time anymore, but I've been very busy with work and other things.

No, I don't own Danny Phantom or any of the characters. If I did, I wouldn't have pushed Danny together with Sam as quickly as the show did and have him end up with Ember instead.

Danny's age in this segment is 21 while Ember…I would guess she'd be at least 24 or 25. Take your pick.

OOOOOO

**Danny Phantom's Fiery Christmas**

'_I can't believe it's been six years since that night…'_ Danny Fenton, also known as Danny Phantom, thought to himself as he stared up into the night sky.

Next to him sat two steaming cups of chicken soup.

It's been six years since an unexpected encounter with someone he'd once considered an enemy suddenly took a serious turn for the better. Ember McLain, a fiery-haired rock star ghost, had appeared out of the Fenton Portal in his parents' laboratory late in the night on December 22 looking like crap. Apparently, she had been sick with the ghostly version of the flu, fittingly called the ecto-flu.

Danny had almost checked out for the night, having caught a record 50 ghosts within a few hours, when Ember had come crashing through the portal. Normally, he'd immediately transform into his ghost counterpart right away and send her packing. But he'd noticed how…off she was. Sweat had been pouring off of her in drops of blue and green and the bags underneath her eyes were considerably darkened. Not to mention that her voice was coming out all raspy and she was coughing and sneezing at an alarming rate.

Ember had then pulled a surprise attack on Danny that sent him into a wall and tried escaping outside, where Danny had followed after transforming. Realizing that Danny had followed her, she attacked him again and sent him to the ground. Jazz, who was still awake while their parents had gone to bed, had run out with the Fenton Thermos to help Danny.

That was when Ember couldn't bear the pain anymore and began to fall to the ground. Fortunately, Danny was quick enough to catch her in his arms. With Jazz's help, he brought her back into Fenton Works and back down to the basement. After 30 minutes, Jazz came to the conclusion that Ember had the ecto-flu.

Fortunately, all Ember needed was rest…and a good helping of chicken soup. Again, with Jazz's help, Danny brought Ember up into his room and laid her on his bed. After Jazz left to go make the soup, Danny had taken the time just staring at Ember's still, sleeping form.

For the first time, he really looked at someone he'd always considered his enemy. Only recently had he realized that many of the ghosts he'd fought had previously held normal, human lives before becoming what they were. He knew that they'd lived, laughed, cried…loved. And as he'd looked upon Ember McLain, he had begun to realize something else.

He was in love with her.

Sure, he and Sam had been expected to get together, but that had never worked out. Paulina was a no-go, as she was only interested in him for his Phantom counterpart. And he'd dated Valerie briefly, but realized she was too consumed by her hatred of Phantom at the time for them to ever be in a serious relationship. All in all, he hasn't had that much luck with women.

But Ember was very different. Danny had spent the time up until Jazz returned just wondering what the blue-haired ghost was like before she'd become a ghost. He remembered wondering what her hair color was before it had taken on the flaming blue it was now.

After Jazz had returned with the soup sometime later, she couldn't help but tease Danny a little on his taste in women. Although he'd denied it openly to her, he knew better. After Jazz left, he had begun feeding the still-sleeping Ember the soup. Afterwards, he'd fallen to sleep.

The next thing he remembered was waking to Ember stroking his cheek with her ungloved hand, still clutching the blue blanket she'd been wrapped in for the night, staring into his eyes and their faces rather…close. She'd jumped back, surprised at him waking up so soon. The first thing he'd noticed besides her being healthy again was the tomato-red blush that had suddenly appeared on her cheeks.

After making sure she was okay, Danny grabbed her guitar in order to hand it back to her. Surprisingly, she didn't take it right away. The first thing she did was caress his cheek with her ungloved hand again. He remembered enjoying the soft touch of her skin on his. And he remembered their conversation.

"_Why?"_ she'd asked.

"_Why what?"_ he'd responded.

"_Why did…you help me? I mean, you had the opportunity to finally be rid of me and instead you take me into your house and…"_

At that point Ember's voice had begun to crack with _emotion_ as tears formed in her eyes. Setting aside Ember's guitar, Danny had moved towards her and wiped away the tears that were already messing up her trademark make-up. He'd looked straight into her emerald-green eyes with his own sapphire-blue.

"_I…didn't want to leave you to suffer. It didn't feel right to leave you out there in the cold snow all alone."_

It was then he'd seen how beautiful she really looked, as she'd stared back at him with nothing but pure innocence in her eyes.

"_But…you had the best opportunity to…"_

"_I know you think I'd go ahead and destroy you without a second thought,"_ he'd stated with renewed confidence. _"But like I told Jazz, I've learned that some ghosts were once humans as well and probably did not expect to become what they are now. I've learned that not all are evil like Pariah Dark."_

He remember her cheering up at that point, because she then smiled in that smug, confident way he was accustomed to seeing her in.

"_Since when did you get so mature, baby pop?"_

At that point, all Danny had done was blush in embarrassment and offer to walk her downstairs to the Fenton Portal. She surprised him with a bold move: linking her arm with his as they moved downstairs.

After moving through the house, Ember had stopped. When Danny had inquired of her as to why she'd stopped, she smiled sinisterly and simply told him, twice, to look up. When he did, his eyes had widened at what she'd been staring at: the mistletoe. When he looked back at her, she was still grinning. What happened next would be ingrained forever in their minds.

He was hesitant at first, but when Ember leaned in as well, he mustered his courage. Their lips had met, and their hands were joined. Danny remembered how much Ember's hair was flaring up in response to their actions. He also remembered how perfect the moment seemed. By the time it had ended, they were both blushing like tomatoes.

Then they reached the portal, stopping at its entrance. Ember then mentioned the Ghost Christmas Party being the next day, then asked Danny to come. After a bit of teasing, Danny agreed. In her excitement, Ember threw the blanket she'd still been clutching over Danny's head. After getting it off, he was surprised again by Ember kissing him one more time on the lips before vanishing into the Ghost Zone in a twirl of blue fire.

Ever since that night, his whole perspective on the rock star ghost had changed completely. Whenever they met after that time, no hostilities were exchanged. Danny had to admit, however, that part of him thought it was a ruse to make him vulnerable to attack, but Ember showed no signs of hurting him or trying to conquer the world or anything. All she did whenever they were together was be close to Danny, holding onto him or helping him out with his ghost-catching.

"Waiting up for someone, baby pop?"

The beautifully familiar voice of his girlfriend, and his Ghost Sense, snapped Danny out of his thoughts. He turned and smiled at the new arrival, the beautiful fiery-haired vixen herself.

"Only if that someone was a sexy, blue-haired rock star named Ember McLain," he replied.

Ember just laughed in response and shook her head, the robin's-egg-blue of her hair lighting up as the ponytail shook.

"Even after all these years, your pick-up lines are still cheesy," she finally said, settling down next to Danny.

"Admit it; you love 'em."

"Yeah? Prove it!"

"You're still with me, aren't you?"

Ember opened her mouth for a retort, but it never came. She just smiled and giggled as she released her hair from its ponytail.

For the most part, Ember's looks haven't changed. She still kept her hair in a ponytail most of the time, only letting it flow freely when she was alone with Danny. She abandoned the one-glove look in exchange for a pair of finger-cut gloves that went the length of her forearms. To top it off, she had a tattoo of Danny's emblem within a heart on her upper right arm.

Danny held up one of the cups of soup to her, which she took almost greedily.

"Nice to see that you remember our yearly tradition," she said before taking a sip of her soup.

"Hey, I remember a lot of things!" Danny protested before sipping his own soup.

"Really?"

"Hell, yeah!"

"Okay, hotshot. How about this one: what's my favorite color?"

Danny opened his mouth but he was stumped.

"Uuuhhhh…black?"

Ember just burst out laughing.

"See, what'd I tell you?

"Well, you do wear black all the time, so I just thought…"

"Most rock stars wear black as part of their wardrobe, Danny."

"Well, most rock stars aren't like you, Ember," Danny said, putting his soup cup down and taking Ember's free hand.

Just from his touch, Ember's hair began to dance.

"Yeah, how's that?"

"For one, they're not ghosts like you…"

"For the most part, true, if you count Kurt Cobain."

"…their hair doesn't glow in the dark or set things on fire…"

"So I torched Tucker's computer…he clearly can't sing for crap and he's annoying as hell."

"…the female singers aren't as sexy as you…"

"Ooohh…now you're getting warm…"

"Their voices aren't as…lovely and hypnotizing…"

Ember drew her face closer to Danny's.

"Warmer, baby pop…"

"They don't have Danny Phantom as their personal boy toy…"

"You're catching fire…"

"And I'm pretty sure they don't kiss like you do, wouldn't you –"

Danny was interrupted by Ember, who had all but lunged for his lips. The half-ghost/half-human hybrid just sighed contentedly and returned Ember's love. For a few moments, they remained like that, despite the fact that Ember's hair was flaring up and threatening to scorch the snowflakes sailing around the couple.

Finally they parted and Danny gasped for breath, while Ember just smirked while trying miserably to hide the cherry-red blush that now painted her grayish-white cheeks.

"Well, we didn't even need mistletoe this time, did we?" Danny asked, grinning.

"I think my hair would've burned it to a crisp this time, don't you think?"

"Point taken," Danny said with a laugh. "So, what is your favorite color?"

"That's easy: blue, because it reminds me of your eyes when you're not in ghost mode."

"Wow, I…thanks, Em," Danny replied, blushing.

"Sure thing, now let's finish the soup before it gets cold!"

Once the couple finished their respective soups, they laid on the rooftop looking up at the night sky. Ember had her arms around Danny and her head was nestled on his chest, while he had his left hand on her waist and his right hand was stroking the strands of her hair, which didn't burn him surprisingly.

After what seemed like forever, Ember heard Danny breathe a bit heavily, breaking the silence of the romantic moment.

"Something wrong, Danny?" she inquired.

Danny sighed and sat back up, forcing Ember to do the same but still keeping her arms around Danny.

"No, nothing's wrong, Em," the raven-haired young man replied. "Just…thinking about stuff."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"I've just been thinking a lot about the past and how we got here. I mean, when we first met you were hell-bent on making the whole world your own. Hell, you placed a love spell on me that made me fall insanely for Sam."

"I remember that, and how it affected you after she broke it. You were pretty distraught, to say the least."

"And angry at you for messing with my emotions. I wanted so badly to hurt you for that."

"One of the toughest fights of my afterlife…"

"What I'm trying to say is, up until that night six years ago, our history wasn't exactly pleasant. Not something you get over or let go. It shapes you…"

"You're uh…getting a little too mystical here, babe," Ember interrupted with a playfully bored look on her face.

"You helped me in every battle after that night, watching my back while I did the same for you."

"No doubt you enjoyed looking at me when my back was turned, baby pop…" Ember chimed in with a lustful gleam in her eyes.

"You helped me defeat Vlad and rallied all the ghosts of the Ghost Zone to keep the world from being destroyed by the Disasteroid all those years ago. Hell, you and I were an unbeatable team when my evil, alternate self returned for revenge. He wasn't expecting us to work so well together, not to mention the deadly combination our powers that put him back in his place."

"Your Ghostly Wail strengthened by a power boost from the guitar of yours truly…"

Danny took Ember's hands from his waist and held them in his right hand, looking her squarely in the eyes.

"Ember, I've never learned to love anyone as much as I have with you. Even Sam never came close, and she'd been one of my best friends from childhood."

"Danny…"

Danny's left hand reached into his jacket pocket and produced a rectangular, dark blue velvet box. Just the sight of it caused Ember to tense up with excitement and her hair to flare up.

"Ember McLain…" Danny began, opening the box.

Once the box opened, Ember's gasped in shock. Inside was a beautiful silver-chained necklace adorned with tiny sapphire gems shaped like musical notes. The core of the necklace was what took Ember's breath away; at the center of the necklace was a white topaz gem shaped like a flame with a smaller flame set in ruby at the center.

Ember looked at Danny with tears in her eyes, her make-up slightly stained.

"Danny, I…" she started, all choked up.

"Will you marry me?"

Ember's answer came in the form of another hungry kiss, but this time held more passion and love than the previous one. Her hair was beyond control, now burning the air around them. It burned brighter than any star that shone that night.

Finally, Ember released her grip on Danny and allowed him to put the necklace on her. As he did, he affectionately gave her a series of kisses up her neck to behind her ear, causing her to giggle. Finally he stopped at her lips and placed a short but loving kiss there.

"I take it that was a 'yes'?" he asked, already knowing her answer.

"You're on fire, Danny," Ember replied, her green eyes filled with love.

"That's a 'yes' for sure."

"Baby pop, you're the soup for my soul."

"Now who's throwing out the cheesy lines?" Danny asked with a smirk.

"Shut up and kiss me again, dipstick."

The night sky was once again filled with blue fire.

OOOOOO

There's your sequel, folks! Now, I know you'll probably beg for a sequel to this, but I really don't have plans to, as my schedule is usually filled up by video games and work. I hope you all enjoyed it, and please leave me some constructive criticism in your reviews or just tell me how much you liked it. Enjoy the new year!


End file.
